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Monday, 6 September 2004
Report from the Mountain





Greetings Survivors of Letters to the Architect

Barak maintains that Letters to the Architect should live on even if we have to change the name since the loss of Bob Harper. In the two weeks before his death Bob called me twice with answers to unresolved questions, and practically his last words to me were,"I hope you get the porch roof built before the hurricanes hit Vermont.The tower needs to be cross braced to the main house." I have the materials for the porch posts on hand, and main beams are ordered, and we will do our best.

We had a hiatus in Vermont building that lasted a month, while Louise was in the hospital for a week with a 1-2-3 knock-out of Lyme disease, a second tick born disease I can neither pronounce nor spell, and pancreatitus, which left her unable to keep down food, liquid. or medicine. It was a couple of weeks before she could even imagine holding a skill saw or hammer.

Last weekend we returned and finished the plywood on the gables of the guest tower, and got the door in . This weekend we had a visit on Saturday from Barak, Jenn and Baeden, as well as a driveby visit from Daina and Eric, so with much help and an eleven hour day we got the tyvek on and the nine windows installed in the tower. We had to cut the long weekend short to fetch Chris at JFK on his return from Alaska and Seattle. Tomorrow, being Labor Day, will be appropriately named for packing the truck to return him to Nork University and the second year of his Masters. Tuesday we return to work. I am working on a house renovation in Orient for the sculptor Richard Serra with the design work coming out of the office of Richard Gluckman. It doesnt replace the loss of Bob Harper's friendship and guidance, but I do love the lucidity a good architect brings to a project.


We love the prospect from the sleeping loft of the guest tower. Four pieces of blocking at the eves over the bed and the screens installed in the windows, and it would be inhabitable....well until the frost and snow anyway.

Best to all of you, BSB











Posted by Bennett at 8:05 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, 6 September 2004 8:11 AM EDT
Tuesday, 3 August 2004
The Architect: Robert Lewis Harper FAIA



Dear Friends,

I can no longer send Reports or Letters to the Architect. Bob Harper passed away this past saturday. I shared with him a love for three dimensional form that has been rare in my life experience. Its been an honor to have him as a friend and collaborator, I am thankful for the vision and kind guidance he has supplied our Vermont building project. His imagination resonates in the structures he envisioned. Words stumble, and tears fall, but friendship is a blessing that endures. My best to Patty...love BSB


Posted by Bennett at 10:06 AM EDT
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Tuesday, 27 July 2004
The Two Towers




Dear Bob, Patty, et al.

Perhaps I should start to make these missives brief, as there are those who only look at the pictures, but then again........ We had nearly a week in Vermont....the stuff of epics! Well the stuff of tiny towers at the end of screened porch wannabes. Got the queen-sized matress upstairs by pulling the plywood off from over the stairwell, and the light into the livingroom from the stairwell clerestory balances out the light in the whole first floor. Still dont have a clue on how far we want to compromise an opportuinity for an 18 foot high wall of windows in order to increase the space in the second floor. Perhaps we will convince the architect to visit while we pull up the east ply on the second floor and do what back at Environment East we called a mockery (mockup, Jason).

Rain in Vermont on Monday, and no delivery from Taconic Lumber in the morning, so we did tarp magic over the porch for a cutting startion and gave the camp the distinct air of Appalachia, which the lack of a dumpster also helps create. Got all the ply on the first floor of the framing, by which time the lumber truck arrived. Nailed off the 3/4 ply in the second floor and got out the drawing with my trig calculatioins and the cutting list, and Louise cut the whole of the second floor walls. While she started the weeks kitchen duties, I nailed together the South wall. That was monday.

Tuesday we had Barak, Jenn and Baeden arriving in the afternoon, so Louise and I framed like people driven to a frenzy. Barak arrived in time to assemble and hoist the trusses into place. I had the pieces cut before they arrived, and the trig calculations were right on the money.

The rest of the week blurrs into a trance of construction monomania (for me at least, Louise kept us fueled with culinary delights, retreating into the kitchen as a place of cooking joy). Wednesday I put in cats at four foot intervals on the roof, and got most of the bumpout done. Thursday was glorious weather, and we decided we would be fools not to get the roof on, so we hoisted the 7 sheets of ply and managed to get ice and snow membrane on. Louise would like some music suitable for a Wagnerian epic opera to be playing in your mind as you reread the last sentance. Friday we had torrential rain again and used the day to put on the wall ply. Its nice to change into dry clothes and sit in a dry living room once in awhile in the midst of such monomania.

Our friends Ken and Espe arrived in Saturday, and we packed up the tools on their arrival (a promise I made to Louise) Went for a hike to the top of the mountain (the first time this year) and into town for a concert at Mass MoCA in the evening....a six hour marathon with Bang On A Can, special guest Terry Riley, minimalist. Interesting show. Today we packed out, and employed the witchcraft of Esperanza to bless the whole structure with a smudge ritual of burning herbs. Swung by the Vermont Country store, and Yankee Candle and made a cell phone reservation for the 6:00 pm ferry, which was just in time to watch the Tall Ships leave the New London harbor.`

Was it a week of epics......dunno, but it feels like a full week. It makes a difference to have shelter. Once the ply goes on the gables and the windows and door are in, we have another dry structure!!!!!

Was I going to make this shorter??????
love to all of you...BSB














Posted by Bennett at 8:26 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 29 July 2004 12:32 PM EDT
Monday, 12 July 2004
Framing the tower



Dear Bob and Patty

Things change on the mountain in three days. We arrived thursday night, and spent the morning friday setting up scaffolding and installing the four windows on the north elevation over the stairwell.

Barak Jenn and Baeden arrived in the afternoon, and Barak helped me get the tyvek and windows on the sidewalls of the bumpout. We had our first impromptu party Friday night with the arrival of Chris, Erin, Oscar and Theo Young, and another family of Barak's friends from the Tripod/Williamstown days. Amid swarms of children roaming the meadow, I got the plates and sills for the guest tower laid out, and did a cutting list of stud lengths that corrected the 5/16 inch variation in first floor platform levelness. The deck of the porch served very well for a crowd of 14 humans and proto humans. The whole camp design begins to resonate with viability as a location for family gatherings. My sibs can take note that by fall three couples could no doubt be accomodated for a weekend!

Saturday, Louise assumed her station as skillsaw adept, and cut the studs while I did the marking and started nailing. Flipped up the walls, and got the LVLs (okay......laminated veneer lumber.......and Jason....smoo is construction adhesive) cut, sistered and installed. I love the engineering of the cantilevers going three directions. Everything just looks like a little box untill you look at what it is doing to generate its little boxness...

Sunday I finished the framing for the second floor platform, and we found a full sheet of 3/4 cdx ply and nailed it off in the observatory corner of the little tower, and took a picture of the view up the meadow toward the brook. Love it! Louise prepared the camp for our return for a full week, starting next Sunday.....I have a few hours to spend with the drawings, doing a shopping list for Taconic Lumber before then.

Louise did all the photography as I spent my weekend as a hammerin' fool..... Love to all....BSB








Posted by Bennett at 9:06 AM EDT
Monday, 28 June 2004
Deck Framing



Dear Bob and Patty

Barak and Jenn and Baeden stayed in a motel in Pownal, next town to the West. We tandem drove after a ferry crossing together with my niece Sara and her husband Steve who had visited Peconic from California. We arrived early enough friday to set up for 2nd floor East windows. Barak solved the second floor window installation methodology for the second window, while I nailed off the first, less planned, and the more difficult of the two. Smart is good.

Built the porch deck on Saturday after moving four wheelbarrow loads of rock into the drainage trench. Barak came by and helped lift the girders. They went to a wedding further up into Vermont. Sunday we got out the plans and built the double cantilever 8'x12' 7" to specs. Tecos are not always pretty.

Sara and Steve called from Dunkin Donuts as we were getting in the loaded truck to leave, so we stayed to show them the camp and water spigot. As we were leaving we found a couple of local inhabitants already celebrating the porch deck with a party of two. The butterflies. The natural life up there is a treat.

Back to work tomorrow....love to all, BSB











Posted by Bennett at 8:17 AM EDT
Wednesday, 23 June 2004
The Architect's Accomplishment


The architect has completed both form and structure. Even with a tiny and simple appearing form, the load paths are indirect when the structure cantilevers in two directions, utilizing a pre-set foundation loction. I am immensely happy with the end product, and am honored to have been part of the process that generates this elegance of form and scale. Thanks Bob

Love to all BSB





Posted by Bennett at 9:54 AM EDT
Sunday, 20 June 2004
Storage Silo. Father's Day


Hi Everyone.

The architect has been at his desk, sissors and pencils and scales and copiers at the ready. Are we ready. The storage silo, a place to store your guests. Same footprint as the shed/privy approved by the town.

Oh yes, we stopped by Centerbrook, Bob is Centerbrook. I joined him for a single malt, Louise was designated, Discussed the balance of the double ended cantilever and the structural hardpoints.

We arrived at the mountain at the witching hour exactly. If the true forms of prayer are blessing and thanksgiving, I fell asleep in sacred space.

Sixteen hours on the mountain got the three east windows in. The natural light in the kitchen is awesome. We decided ice and snow membrane should be an olympic sport, for some HGTV reality contest. We are not contestants. We are the winners. Well, maybe, sorta. The ISM doesnt stick to the powdery surface of the concrete tank, but it hangs like an apron over the edge of the tank top by 3"-6".

It is my fathers day awareness that the inclusion of a second, tiny, perfectly scaled, private space is the finest gift that could be made to this project. A gift to my children and family and friends. I know my father, who's will empowers this project approves the use of his estate . As the witchs would say....."blessed be"....BSB







Posted by Bennett at 5:48 PM EDT
Monday, 14 June 2004
Pondeering Screwups


Dear Bob and Patty

We got back from the Opening of the (rather mediocre) Mather Hospital Sculpture Exhibit friday night to a message that the excavator wouldnt be showing up on Saturday......I guess its good we don't have a Vermont contractor as well. Stopped at a new Home Despot in Greeenfield Mass. for a second shovel and one of those back braces. Arrived at the mountain before noon and I went at the dirt detail. The septic tank (aka foundation for the end of the porch/shed/ privy) wasnt as deep as I remembered.... 6" at the downhill side and just under two feet at the top of the slope. The back brace reminds one to bend at the knees rather than the back, which saved my back, but had me waking up all night with screaming upper leg cramps. Got the septic tank uncovered, sustained by the image of the porch extending all the way to the shed/privy structure built on a frame suppoerted by the inground tank. We were also sustained by the fantasy of including a sleeping loft in the top of the shed somehow, as a place for our kids to have some privacy during an overnight visit. When I checked the drawings later, this seems undoable given the present plan....not enough headroom between the collar ties and the rafters.

The powernailer worked pretty well, and we got the sills installed with smoo before dark, and the stud placement laid out. Next morning I measured each stud length with the WatrLevel which has a four foot scale that can be set to a base point (the highest of the porch support brackets) and then gives an offset reading for any placement within the 4' scale. The top of the tank was crowned, so this was great for generating the cutting list. Louise cut and I nailed. Our lumber delivery was short (were we robbed?) so I didnt have enough ply to finish or any Ice and Snow Membrane to seal the whole thing from ground water.

It wasn't until I got out the camera that I discovered the screwups made a year and a half ago in that bleak October when we froze in tents doing the foundation work. I laid the tank placement out expecting a 4x4x8 foot tank. What we got was 5x10(+ a little) in plan, and I didn't center the longer dimension on the porch girder supports. When I took pictures I saw that the uphill (west) end of the tank lined up with the Simpson brackets at the two foot stud on the tank structure, while the east end of the tank is about three inchs inside the girder placement. These alignments can be seen in the photos. The roof over the shed, as drawn, only extends 1'6" past the girders, so we have a six inch opportunity for architectural improvisation....Do you have the billable hour meter running as you read this...I hope! I thought maybe the south elevation of the shed should go assymetric, with a western extension that would cover the support wall and extend over a firewood storage area framed by the diagional support brackets that define all the house roof overhangs.. Maybe the roof could be rethought to allow a sleeping loft. In my shoveling fantasies I had thought the space under the porch cross gable would be pleasant to sleep in also, it it were insulated, and vented at the gable and with a sky light. But alas there is less than three feet to the inside of the rafter peak.....

We also got a pipe installed for emptying the chemical toilet into the tank by hand. I was amazed to discover that the tank was 2/3 full from ground water infiltration. The excavator had forewarned me of this, but it was still suprising. I have no idea at all about how to run the sewer lines and evetually hook up the low water consumption toilet in the privy, but the time to adress that problem seems fairly far off right now, however, there is the virtue of that pre-planning thing.....

I am sure the architecture gods are either punishing me, or prompting me to tap into your brilliant problem solving abilities to reconfigure a superior but still simple and cost effective solution ......I leave for Jersey after dinner tonight for a couple of days of poolside carribean fantasy set construction..... I enjoyed chatting with Patty when we discovered that we can now get a cell signal on the mountain, right at the camp! Hope you enjoyed Sears in the Catskills...love to all.... BSB




Posted by Bennett at 9:31 AM EDT
Tuesday, 1 June 2004
The 2004 Season




Dear Bob, Patty et al,

Eight windows (out of 21) and one door were waiting for us and we got 'em all in with a three day assist from son Christopher. It took almost all day thursday to figure out how to load the kitchen and tools on the truck, and we rode most of the way bouncing on the rubber blocks that keep the axle from hitting the frame when the springs are reversed. Kept stroking the dashboard, saying "Good truck, Nice truck."

Had a mountaintop gourmet vegetarian curry feast on Sunday night, looking up the hill through the west windows, feeling the enclosure of shelter.....SHELTER! with a kitchen no less.

Replaced the tar paper on the kitchen roof with Ice and Snow Membrane, and did the tyvek as demanded to install windows. Invented some new (to me ) thoughts on tyvek and trim coil flashing pans.

Had the pleasure of a ferry trip over with our daughter-in-law Jenn and grandson Baeden, and drove back via Nork City to drop Chris off back at NYU. The pleasure of youthful companionship both directions.

Louise wants to get the windows and tyvek in and then build the porch this summer so there is a sheltered place to work as the interior and exterior get finished. With the eave blocking done this weekend as well, we could move in next visit with a caloric boost from a kerosene heater (nightime in the 40's this past visit ). I understand the not living in sawdust mind set, so I'm thinking about the virtues of feminine wisdom.....

I enjoyed the Archibald cottage project, and have to get my ass in high gear on the Jersey cabinets, so I can go make things happen in Vermont with a clear conscience........best to all BSB




Posted by Bennett at 9:10 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, 20 June 2005 6:03 PM EDT
Friday, 2 April 2004
Lulu's Kitchen


Dear Bob and Patty,

Don't you think its interesting how the non-electric kitchen of the future manifests itself in the context of pandemic electric woodworking machines. "Honey....would you cut a square hole in the lid of this can with the hollow chisel mortiser? The generator's in the back of the truck."

I hope the pictures are worth paragraphs. I've had fun. I think this will be sufficient for our needs. I hope my design and execution are worthy of the architect's vision of the structure in which this will dwell. Thanks for the collaboration. Powerful stuff...... collaboration.

Love to all who read this ......BSB













Posted by Bennett at 3:06 PM EST

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